[GLLUG] Overclockers

[Christopher Hunter]

On 20/04/14 09:22, Don Williams wrote:
> Deeply offensive. Isn't it bad enough that we have free-market-nutters 
> messing up computing without such stone-age numptys entering the fray? 
> Don Williams
>
Numpties who top post are pretty offensive, too.  Obviously you don't 
recognise irony or sarcasm when you read it.  I am deeply offended by 
being described as a "nutter" - I assume that you're some kind of 
scrounging socialist type who chooses not to work, and lives off the 
efforts of the rest of us?  Or worse yet, you're a "teacher"....

The "free market" is a fact of life.  Even those "numpties" at Microsoft 
and Apple (and many others) haven't recognised this, and persist with 
their restrictive practices (often illegal in many territories, and some 
of which could be considered to be "demanding money with menaces", but 
that's another issue).  Open Source software, hardware and even its 
ethos are obviously the way forward.  Even Government is beginning to 
recognise this (for example:  I'm a Linux-using senior Civil Servant).

Perhaps Mr Williams is scared of open and free competition.  It has to 
be remembered that all progress is (usually) pushed by competition, and 
we're in a unique situation.  At this juncture, we have almost 30% of 
the computers worldwide crippled by an obsolete "Operating System":

What have the Linux "big boys" done about it?  Virtually nothing. This 
prime opportunity to persuade a massive potential userbase to move to 
FOSS is being almost entirely missed.  Linux is still widely derided as 
being "for geeks" and "difficult".  Obviously we all know this isn't 
true (though some elitists wish it still was!).  If we'd all had our 
wits about us, we would have won over this huge number of users, but 
advertising is seen as a dirty word by most FOSS organisations, so we 
will remain as a small, unseen, rather selective proportion of users.

Incidentally, Mr Williams - as far as being "stone-age" is concerned, 
I'm writing and using code that's (probably) a year or two ahead of 
anything you've seen, so that accusation can't be levelled at me!

C.